#895 of 1001 · January 12, 2023

Is it our loved ones we see before us, or a feral impostor? If our senses can be deceived, how are we to tell the difference? Ed Young layers these and other unsettling questions throughout his unforgettable Lon Po Po, our next entry in Little Red Riding Hood Week Two. A woman goes to visit her mother. She bids goodbye to her three daughters, Shang, Tao, and Paotze, planning to return the next day. The sisters are therefore surprised to hear a knock at the door. The visitor claims to be their Po Po, or grandmother…but is she really? In the dark, they cannot see her face. The newcomer is, in fact, a wicked wolf, and the young girls must band together and use their wits as well as their strength to put a stop to his monstrous appetites. Young writes with a masterful voice, and his paintings, split into vertical sections that evoke traditional Chinese panel art, cleverly incorporates the wolf’s face into everyday objects and the landscape itself. A note for folklore enthusiasts: As indicated in the book’s subtitle, this tale is a variant of Little Red Riding Hood from China. The back matter indicates that it was translated from a collection of Chinese folktales. #little #red #grandmother #wolf #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks